INTRODUCTION

   Whether you're an avid photographer, amateur film maker or you just own a music player, car dash camera, tablet or a smartphone you probably have more than just one microSD card in your possession. What you may not know however is that not all microSD cards are created equal so manufacturers have different lines aimed at different usages. For example, if you want a microSD card to store music pretty much anything will do (still unless you have a leftover card laying around i wouldn't recommend anything below the SDXC UHS-I U1 standard) but if you want one for 4k recording and above then speed ratings are something you really need to look out for. To date UHS-I U3 V30 microSD cards have been quite enough even for 4k recording (this depends a lot on the recording device however) but with the introduction of 8k (not to mention higher megapixel cameras) UHS-II microSD cards have become a must and so today I’ll be taking a thorough look at the brand new Canvas Go! Plus and Canvas React Plus models by Kingston.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston designs, manufactures and distributes memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. Through its global network of subsidiaries and affiliates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China and sales representatives in the United States, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America.

   Kingston currently has the Canvas Go! Plus microSD card model available in 64/128/256/512GB capacities and the React Plus microSD card model available in 64/128/256GB capacities (with me i have the 128GB variants) and unlike their predecessors this time they belong in two different categories. To be more specific the former follows the UHS-I (U3 V30 A2) standard which we've seen quite a few times already whereas the latter follows the newest (at least in terms of market availability) UHS-II (U3 V90 A1) standard. This means that even though the Canvas Go! Plus is a much faster than expected model (up to 170Mb/s read and 90MB/s write) the Canvas React Plus is even faster (up to 285MB/s read and 165MB/s write) thus making it ideal for even 8k recording. Both lines are waterproof, temperature proof and x-ray proof, feature the same operating temperature range (-25~85 degrees Celsius) and are covered with limited lifetime warranties.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE CANVAS GO! PLUS 128GB & REACT PLUS 128GB

As expected, both samples arrived in blister packs from where you can take a quick look at the cards themselves, their capacities and their advertised performance numbers.

The OS compatibility list is printed at the rear of the packs along with the serial and part numbers, barcodes and a few words about the cards in numerous languages.

Typically, both microSDXC cards come with their own SD adapters but the Canvas React Plus model also comes with an MobileLite Plus microSD Reader (just like the one we used in our last review).

At the top of all three cards we find the capacity and speed classification while at the rear we find the data pins (as I pointed out in our last review the additional rear row of pins of the Canvas React Plus microSD card is responsible for its impressive performance boost).

Since Kingston bundles a microSD UHS-II card reader with the Canvas React Plus it makes sense that the SD adapter is UHS-I.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Memory cards are pretty much identical to flash drives so to make things easier for everyone we'll be using roughly the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read and write data transfer numbers. The benchmark suites we'll be using for our memory card tests are HD Tune Pro (Read - Write average and max speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read - Write performance), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (4GB Read / Write speeds) and ATTO (Average Read / Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

   As with all our storage reviews all tests are performed on our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD with all updates installed up to the day of this review (for ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark cards are formatted using the NTFS file system – however partitions need to be removed for the write tests of both AIDA64 and HD Tune Pro).

* As of April 2020, we'll be using our X299 test rig for microSDXC UHS-II (and above) memory card reviews.

TEST RESULTS – AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS – HDTUNE PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

   Even though the Canvas Go! Plus 128GB microSDXC card performed a lot better than any of the UHS-I models before it it’s the Canvas React Plus 128GB microSDXC model which really steals the show. Yes, it does trade blows with the Superior Pro model by Silicon Power but it takes the lead (even slightly) and that’s great news for people into 8k recording. Bundling a microSD UHS-II card reader with the Canvas React Plus cards was also the right move by Kingston since that means you don’t need to go out looking for a compatible card reader (however if you already own one that's a significant disadvantage, price-wise that is).

   You can currently find the Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 128GB MicroSDXC card for just USD29.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 26Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price which is quite excellent for the performance you’re getting in return. On the other hand, the Kingston Canvas React Plus (with the bundled UHS-II adapter) retails for USD126.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 107Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price which is considerably higher compared to other similar products (clearly because of the bundled adapter). With that out of the way microSDXC cards only need three things to succeed, performance, capacity and endurance and since both the new Canvas Go! Plus and Canvas React Plus models tick all three they get our Golden Award.

PROS

- Top Of The Charts Performance (Canvas React Plus)
- Fastest UHS I MicroSDXC Card (Canvas Go! Plus)
- Bundled MobileLite Plus Adapter (Canvas React Plus)
- Price (Canvas Go! Plus)
- Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Price (Canvas React Plus)